Sputter And guessing game??

[Dr.Spank]

Hi all..Hope someone on here can help me on this..I'll make it as short and sweet as possible..


2002 5.4 152,000 miles

-one of the spark plugs blew , had a mechanic do the repair kit on it.. got the truck back and still had a sputter to it. he requested i put new coil packs all around.

-Took it back to the mechanic and had the new coils put it.

-Took it home, drove pretty good for about 3 days with a very slight sputter here & there, then engine light came on and started spittin and sputtering again really bad

-Took it back to mechanic and the douche put new coils in and not new plugs (he said I never mentioned plugs, but I'm not the mechanic and as little as i know about cars, i would think if you're doing coils, you would also do plugs, no?? lol) ..So i had him put new plugs all around

-got the car back today and it's running ok except for a sputter every now and then..I havent noticed if it's a certain rpms , but it will do it at all different speeds...It's very random.

-Mechanic told me that he thinks it could be the Catalytic converter that's clogged, but I'm a little skeptic because before the initial repair when the plug blew out, the truck was running excellent.

before I get into a new converter and dump that kind of money, is there anything else I can look at that would cause this random sputter??
It seems to go away if I stomp on the gas.
Thanks, Any help would be appreciated

 

[toms89]

Would help if we knew the codes.

I would think if a converter is clogged it would perform worse at W.O.T when more exhaust flow is present.

To me it sounds as if the mechanic is replacing parts in hopes of hitting the correct item without any real troubleshooting.

I think I would try another mechanic or two.

 

[BIGRED03]

Hi all..Hope someone on here can help me on this..I'll make it as short and sweet as possible..


2002 5.4 152,000 miles

-one of the spark plugs blew , had a mechanic do the repair kit on it.. got the truck back and still had a sputter to it. he requested i put new coil packs all around.

-Took it back to the mechanic and had the new coils put it.

-Took it home, drove pretty good for about 3 days with a very slight sputter here & there, then engine light came on and started spittin and sputtering again really bad

-Took it back to mechanic and the douche put new coils in and not new plugs (he said I never mentioned plugs, but I'm not the mechanic and as little as i know about cars, i would think if you're doing coils, you would also do plugs, no?? lol) ..So i had him put new plugs all around

-got the car back today and it's running ok except for a sputter every now and then..I havent noticed if it's a certain rpms , but it will do it at all different speeds...It's very random.

-Mechanic told me that he thinks it could be the Catalytic converter that's clogged, but I'm a little skeptic because before the initial repair when the plug blew out, the truck was running excellent.

before I get into a new converter and dump that kind of money, is there anything else I can look at that would cause this random sputter??
It seems to go away if I stomp on the gas.
Thanks, Any help would be appreciated

Does not sound like a cat converter to me. You would notice power reduction and smell it every time you accelerated up to highway speed. Like rotten eggs and sulfur cooking.
I would look at a fuel problem and try the filter, run a cleaning additive and dryer then change fuel source.
Next if that does not help start keeping a record of when it happens like engine cold, hot restart, rpms, load ect.
This will help to further diagnose if needed later.

 

[BIGRED03]

One minute late after toms89! Is the sputter like a surge or more like a cut off? What happens in park when you idle at different rpm's? Still do it? How about when increasing rpm's? Yes the codes would really help. I think Sears and Pep Boys and many part's stores will do the OBDII codes for free.

 

[superexpy]

Could be one of your coil pack wires. iv seen after a plug blows out of the head the wire can break internally or one of the pins can come out of the plug

 

[Dr.Spank]

Thanks guys...

it does not do it at idle..only while driving.
I don't think its the coil pack wires because it did it after the initial repair, and then I had the other 7 coil packs replaced..

As for the "sputter".. the truck doesnt really lose power, it just kind of bucks for a few seconds and then clears up...Its really frustrating

 

[andrew_s]

Sounds like you need a new mechanic as he seems like a parts changer. Running PIDs and storing the data and looking at the graph can tell you whats happening when the sputter occurs. Takes about 5 min to grab the WDS or NGS (granted these are probably OLD and replaced with something new now) plug her in click the pids you want to see and then go for a road test. If the truck exhibits the sputter and you picked the right PIDs then it will show you the path to a fix.

I never understood parts changers as they always create more work for themselves (unethical if paid) due to comebacks. Do the job right and both you and the customer profit.

 

[Dr.Spank]

hmmm wonder why i'm not getting my instant e-mail notifications

 

[raul94]

had same issue it was my mass air and the pvc vacume hose on passenger side valve cover was dry rotted

 

[Dr.Spank]

so here's part 2... I take it to a "ford expert" .. he tells me that the initial sparkplug repair was not properly and they used the wrong type of insert. He tells me that 4 of the 8 plugs were cracked (they were just put in) ...He then does the correct plug repair, replaceds all 8 plugs again and I get charged $560 and the truck is still running the same... Makes no sense... He said that he thinks that its the after market coils I purchased from e-bay... omy only issue with that is that , the seller on ebay had sold over 100 sets of these and had perfect feedbac, the mechanic also said he replaced some of the aftermarket coils with some used oems he had laying around and said it seemed to make the truck run better...I'm calling ********..I can see getting 1 or 2 bad in a pack of 8, but i'm not buying that all 8 coils are just bad.

The truck starts to rumble and vibrate from 40-50mph and then at 55-65mph almost like its starving for gas.. its gotten a new fuel filter and the fuel pump is working properly.

My concern is that if I spend all that money on a set of oem coils , that its still not going to fix this issue..I'm no mechanic and dont claim to be, but I do have some common sense...I'm just lost at this point and down $1,000 already

 

[toms89]

Unfortunately it only takes one bad coil, spark plug, etc.. to make it misfire. The problem is locating that bad one if the pcm does not recognize the misfire and identify the offending cylinder.

What your describing definately sounds like an ignition misfire. If it ran fine before then its likely the ignition related unless something else was disturbed during the "repair". Can you verify if the mechanics carefully checked the coil electrical connector on the cylinder that blew?

What coils did you purchase??

 

[JUST4FUN]

With out the codes it like throwing darts. It could be this or that .

 

[stamp11127]

FYI - you can have 8 bad coils. Consider how cheaply things are made today. If the production run is at the minimum standard needed any slight change downward during the run will produce bad product. If inspection intervals are set to 1000, you can produce upto 1000 bad items assuming it is caught.
Production runs will follow the bell shape curve. One standard deviation from the highest point will be the best of the run. Two standards will be the 2nd quality brands the tail end of the curve are the el cheapo's. Will they work - roll of the dice. But keep in mind something in the production run has kept them from being top quality. Could be electrical, visual etc.

Companies today will sell the product anyway hoping the customer doesn't return it.

Do you have bad coils? Only way to tell is through testing and diagnosis.

If your interested in QC one of the most intensive testing was during the Apollo Space program. Let me know and I'll try to find some links on it.

 

[Dr.Spank]

The first 8 coils i bought were off e-bay...The seller had sold quite a few sets of them and i went and looked to see the feedback on those and they were all good which is why i bought them..Then after it showed a misfire the first mechanic bought a single coil from autozone and put that one in...
As for the codes, it would show a misfire on 8. then we would replace the coil and it would run fine for a day and show a misfire on 5 and so on...very frustration...

Can anyone provide me a link to the cheapest place to by the OEM coils?? I'm sure theres somewhere online that can beat any dealer cost.

 

[stamp11127]

Get the part number, do a Google search & watch the shipping costs.

Take a look at FordParts.com

 

[Dr.Spank]

Thanks